


Renaming

by thesometimeswarrior



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Character Study, Ficlet, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst, Post-Episode s05e29-32 Change Your Mind, Steven's Subtle Identity Crisis
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-14
Updated: 2021-01-14
Packaged: 2021-03-18 11:26:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 719
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28742463
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thesometimeswarrior/pseuds/thesometimeswarrior
Summary: “The fusion you and my mom made—her name was RainbowQuartz, right?“Yes…”“But neither of you was a Quartz!”Pearl and Steven reevaluate.
Relationships: Pearl & Rose Quartz (Steven Universe), Pearl & Steven Universe
Comments: 16
Kudos: 81





	Renaming

The second time he forms, several months after the first, Rainbow warps to the ridge overlooking the strawberry field. Something stirs in him, then, a pang of non-belonging, a sense of things being just enough out of place for him to feel uncomfortable, and it presses his component parts to split back into themselves. Then, Steven splays out on the grass, and Pearl delicately folds her legs and sits down next to him.

They hold in the quiet for a moment. It’s the middle of the day, not night like it usually is when Pearl has found herself here these past several years, and not that lavender twilight it had been the only time before now that she and Steven had been here together. But the blue sky and the sunlight are their own type of contemplative, the way the white clouds pass over them slowly like a dance, and the breeze ruffles the vines below them, the fruit, the grass around them, both of their hair...

Finally, Steven breaks the silence, eyes on the sky, hand resting on the place where, under his shirt, his gemstone pulses. “Pearl?” 

“Hm?”

“The fusion you and my mom made—her name was Rainbow _Quartz_ , right?

“Yes…”

“But neither of you was a Quartz!”

“I...I’ve never considered that.” Pearl pauses. “I suppose...that’s literally true. But by the time we were finally able to fuse, your mother had embodied the Rose Quartz persona. It wasn’t just a disguise anymore. It was who she was. In fact,” She turns her eyes to the clouds. “We tried to fuse when she was Pink Diamond, and we were never able to do it. It was only when she became Rose that we were able to form Rainbow Quartz at all.”

“Okay, but _you_ were never a Quartz!”

“But I was as invested in Rose Quartz’s existence as she was. As delighted as she was that she was free to change into someone she wasn’t built to be. It was one of the things that brought us together.”

“Yeah, but...” Steven rolls on his side to face here. “You were _half_ of who that fusion was. You grew and changed and found freedom too! And the person you became, the person you are...You’re not a Quartz!”

Pearl’s eyes take on that same distant, sunken expression that they had the last time they two sat here together, two years and eons ago, and though she smiles, they cast a sense of melancholy over her features. Rose never _meant_ to subsume her, and Pearl never meant for herself to be subsumed. She quietly agrees, “I’m not a Quartz."

Sighing, lips pursed in a line, Steven falls back onto his back. “And neither am I, I don’t think. I mean…” Another pause. “I don’t think I’m a _Diamond_. Not really. But I’m not really a Quartz either, you know? I...I’m…”

“You’re _Steven_.” In some ways, this is the exact opposite of what she said the last time they were here, when she looked into his eyes and searched for all the ways he wasn’t himself, and told him so. Just thinking about it now sends a spike of regret pulsating through her gem. And even more so now as Steven's eyes hold the same sort of uncertain hesitance that they’d had a few weeks ago, as he filled in those missing moments that were robbed from her in White Diamond’s head. What happened to him. What White Diamond did. How he _almost_... But also, how he _saw_ himself for the first time then, and how much of a giddy relief it had been, because he’d always wondered...he’d never quite known...

“Yeah.” Steven’s whole body seems to relax. “I’m just Steven. And you’re Pearl.” He looks at her again. “And our fusion is…”

Pearl reaches for his hand, to hold it in much the same way as she had when he’d been so small, and she helped him on the beach, step-by-step, learn to walk. Their fingers brush. 

When their fusion springs back into being, he lands on his back, grass cradling his skin.

“ _Rainbow_ ,” they say, face cracking into a smile. The sun catches both of their gemstones, and they glimmer in the light. Neither one is a quartz. “I’m just _Rainbow_. Rainbow 2.0.”

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed! I love comments!


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